Slipping Away
by JWolf28
Summary: Amy Queen is acting strange and worrying her parents. Part 3 in my Olicity Family series, but can be read as a standalone.


**A/N: This is a sequel to Peanut Butter, Jalapenos, and Roses, but can be read as a standalone. Please leave me a review to let me know what you think.**

Oliver frowned at his daughter. Amy Queen was a lot like her mother in many ways and one of those was how talkative she was. Since she could make a sound, Amy had kept up a steady stream of chatter and was always eager to talk about her day, even if he had been there for all of it. Oliver never minded because he loved his baby girl to pieces and would listen to her talk about anything, even if it was just about her dolls. It was also how he knew something was wrong.

Knowing Amy's chatterbox tendencies, he was more than a little worried when she became One-Word-Kid. "How was school?"

"Fine."

"Do you have any homework?"

"No."

"Did you have fun today?"

"Yes?"

Oliver was ready to find and interrogate someone to help him understand why his little girl was hurting. He sighed. "What's wrong, sweetheart? You usually talk all about your day."

And his baby looked at him with eyes much older than her seven years and shrugged as she pushed her dinner around her plate. "I'm not hungry. Is it alright if I got up to my room and read?"

Oliver looked to Felicity, who nodded, and allowed his daughter to leave. Their two and a half year old son Aiden looked at them. "Aiden, too, Mama?"

Felicity grinned and pressed a kiss to the boy's hair. "Not yet, baby."

He pouted, crossing his arms over his chest. "Want Amy."

"Amy is sad and wants to read so she can be happy again."

Aiden considered this and sighed. "Tay. Amy later."

Oliver chuckled. "Yeah, you can play with Amy later."

As soon as the kids were in bed, Oliver muted the TV from the news channel that was playing. "Did Amy seem off to you?"

Felicity nodded with a frown and worry in her eyes that Oliver was sure reflected in his own eyes. "She was so quiet today. She didn't tell us about school or her art class. She loves her art class."

Oliver ran a hand through his hair. "I know. I'm so worried that something's wrong, but I don't want to freak her out."

Felicity's eyes filled with tears. "I don't like that she's hurting, but we can't push her or she'll close up. She gets that from you."

Oliver nodded, pulling Felicity into his arms and burying his face in her hair. "I don't know what to do."

"We have to wait for her to tell us, I suppose."

That method didn't work well. Almost three weeks passed before the worried parents got any word on why their daughter was so upset and during that time, she'd become increasingly withdrawn and angry. She got mad easily and yelled and threw tantrums when she was in such a mood. It got to the point where she was even getting mad at Aiden, even though Oliver and Felicity knew that she loved her little brother dearly. One Monday, it was Career Day and all the kids got to bring in their parents and the adults got to explain their jobs to the kids. Both Felicity and Oliver went and Felicity explained how she was the CEO of Palmer Tech and what her job in the company was. When she told them that she was pretty much the boss of everyone, the students quickly decided that they wanted to be CEO too.

Oliver, at the time, was working at a dojo teaching martial arts to kids. Most of the boys and a few of the girls were very interested in that. It was towards the end of the day that Oliver and Felicity noticed that one of the other girls was sneering at Amy. Despite being only seven, Amy was smart like her mother and had been bumped from first to third grade and it seemed that this girl was making fun of her for it.

Oliver's eyes narrowed as he saw the older girl pull on Amy's pigtail and start laughing when tears welled in the younger girl's eyes. Felicity was watching with the same angry expression and Oliver was certain that Felicity was going to be complaining heavily at the next PTA meeting. As the couple moved forward to give the girl a stern talking to, they noticed a woman walking towards the pair of third graders. The woman was tall and thin, but dressed in short shorts and a crop top. Oliver recognized her as a parent named Shawna who said that she worked in acquisitions. Oliver would guess that she meant acquiring new, rich husbands that would give her anything she wanted.

The woman smiled as much as her botox would allow. "Who are you talking to, Sweetheart?"

The older girl laughed cruelly. "It's just Lamy. She's little, but the stupid teacher let her in here anyway. She's so lame. She's a geek!"

Shawna laughed along with the girl. "That is lame, hon. And are those pigtails? What a dork!"

Amy's lower lip trembled as she heard the mean words and Oliver felt his face go red with anger. He rushed forward and scooped his little girl up into his arms. Felicity glared at the other child. "How dare you! Just because Amy is smart, you pick on her? And you!" Felicity rounded on Shawna. "How could you just go along with it? Do you know how much you've been hurting her? What kind of parent are you?" Felicity studied the woman a moment more before her eyes flared in anger. "Aren't you my vice president of acquisitions?" Shawna gulped and Felicity's glare hardened. "I have a right mind to fire you."

Shawna trembled. "Now, Mrs. Queen, let's be rational."

"I am being rational! I won't let my daughter take this from anyone, much less one of my own employees."

"Please, don't fire me! I need my job!"

Felicity sneered. "I'm hesitant to fire you because you're good at your job so you can remain employed at Palmer Tech under two conditions."

Shawna nodded quickly. "Anything."

"One, you and your daughter will write a long and sincere apologetic letter to Amy. Two, you and your daughter-"

"Summerbelle."

"You and Summerbelle will take a couple hours and research the consequences of bullying people and why you shouldn't do it. You will both write reports on it and I expect them on my desk in one week. Am I understood?"

Shawna nodded emphatically. "Of course. We'll start that as soon as we get home."

Felicity nodded. "Good. And if I ever hear that Summerbelle is bullying Amy again, you will be demoted."

"Of course. Thank you, Mrs. Queen."

Felicity nodded coldly at the other woman and watched her hurry away, her daughter trailing behind her. ~

~ When they got home, Amy turned to her parents angrily. "Don't you understand what you've done?"

Oliver frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Summerbelle said I could never tell _anyone_ what happened."

Felicity frowned, squatting down in front of the little girl. "Why couldn't you tell us, Baby? You know we would never let anyone hurt you."

Amy sighed. "Summerbelle said that her brother goes to the same daycare as Aiden and that if I told anyone that she hurt me, she'd tell her brother to hurt Aiden."

Oliver's eyes widened. "She said that?"

"Yeah. And I love Aiden and I don't want anyone to hurt him so I let Summerbelle hurt me."

Felicity was barely holding back tears. "How bad did she hurt you?"

Amy sniffled. "She pushed me down a lot and hit me in my belly sometimes. And she called me mean names and those hurt my feelings. But no one hurts my little brother."

Oliver nodded. "You should always protect your little brother, but sometimes Mommy and Daddy can protect you both better. If this ever happens again, you need to tell us right away because as long as we know about it, we will never ever let anyone hurt you or Aiden."

Amy nodded. "Okay. But Aiden will be okay? Summerbelle might still make her brother hurt him."

Felicity smiled. "How about we send Uncle Diggle to daycare with Aiden tomorrow? That way, if Summerbelle's brother tries to hurt him, Uncle Diggle is right there."

Amy nodded. "I guess that's okay."

The family embraced and life went on. Aiden never did get hurt and Summerbelle never bullied another person again. Shawna knew she was on thin ice and to try to get back in the CEO's good graces, she spent time on the weekends lecturing to kids about bullying at different libraries and student centers. Everyone was happy.

THE END


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